1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to computer systems, and in particular, to a method and apparatus for providing a secure-private partition on a hard disk drive.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the field of computer systems, various implementations have been proposed for protecting data stored in a computer from being accidentally or intentionally deleted or corrupted. For example, firmware functions and other codes, data, files stored in flash memory and other nonvolatile memory are protected from deliberate distortion of information. In one type of flash memory (i.e., boot block type) the codes and data can be locked and updated only in a special manner. Due to increases in complexity of computer systems, firmware functions and features within system ROM (read-only memory) utilizing flash memory (or other nonvolatile memory) continue to grow in size. This growth of firmware creates a problem of adding more functions and features without having enough memory space to store these new functions. Unfortunately, the cost of flash memory and other nonvolatile memory continues to remain relatively high. Because hard drive storage continues to get faster and cheaper, it would be desirable to create a secure partition on a hard disk drive which may serve as an expansion memory for platform expansion functions.
There is also a need to protect certain software stored in computer systems from computer viruses. Once a computer is infected with a computer virus, codes, data, files stored in a hard disk drive is vulnerable to unauthorized corruption. Therefore, there is a need to provide a secure partition on a hard disk drive that is capable of protecting the software stored in the secure partition from being accidentally or intentionally deleted or corrupted.